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Eugene Jarecki

In his farewell address in 1961, former President Dwight Eisenhower warned our country that only an alert and knowlegable citizenry could protect the country against the misplaced power and influence of the nation’s “military industrial complex.” The former General believed in a strong national defense, but he was deeply worried about the relationship between the U.S. Military and the corporations that stocked the nation’s arsenal. Award-winning filmmaker Eugene Jarecki’s 2005 film “Why We Fight” offers his analysis of how the current war in Iraq has less to do with the current administration’s war against terrorism and spreading democracy, but has more to do with the spreading of a U.S. capitalist empire since the end of the Second World War. Jarecki was on the SIU Carbondale campus recently for screenings of his film and to present this year’s Michael and Nancy Glassman Distinguished lecture under the auspices of the University Honors Program. Jak Tichenor talked with him about him about his work